From the buzz surrounding it, on 08-08-08 Singh is Kinng will set the box office on fire. The film stars Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif and is set in Punjab, Egypt and Australia. The music for the film has a strong Punjabi influence but there is also a mix of bhangra and R&B on some of the tracks. Though the music has been out for a few weeks now, we really wanted to take time and do a special review for the soundtrack. We asked two of our music reviewers, Sara and Stacey, to take a listen, and here is what they think about this soundtrack.
With Pritam at the helm one would expect a mind blowing album… so is it? Well, mind blowing, no. However, we do think it is a 3 star album with some jammin’ tracks that will get your feet a tappin’, your shoulders a dancin’ and will get you groovin’ to the bhangra beat!
First we have the highly anticipated title track, Singh is Kinng:
International rap artist, Snoop Dogg, makes his entry into Bollywood by lending his vocals for the title track of the album and accompanying him is the UK group RDB and Akshay Kumar. The song has been composed to be an anthem of sorts and in many parts it is effective. Snoop D-O-doubleG starts off the track with his rap bit introducing all the artists. Soon after RDB’s Labh Janjua follows with a musical note, and I feel it is the best part of the song. Akshay Kumar enters next, and I don’t know if we can call it singing because it is more like a dialogue verse in the song. The main problem with this song is that all three artists’ vocals do not run together smoothly and with the sudden interruptions between rap, singing and dialogues, the track turns out to be one random mess.
For me, Sara, this track had a big flaw and it disappointed me. Snoop D-O doubleG’s rap is just bad, and I mean in the complimentary sense of that word. I just wish the music of the refrain stood up to his rhyme. The refrain and the music that goes with it is just bad, in the uncomplimentary sense of the word. That section did not mix with Snoop’s rap or the other parts of the song. It would have been tolerable if it was at least one octave lower and also musically taken down a notch so it was not so mismatched. The repeating of ‘Singh is Kinng’ in that monotone was really quite annoying. Labh Janjua was good and Akshay did well in his rap/dialogue section. But again, Akshay was lost to the music and no match for Snoop Dogg. The weird transfer to bhangra beats near the end was annoying and again mismatched. I give it props for Snoop Dogg, he was real cool like, but the rest of the song did not fit and it is shame.
